Accessibility

Labyrinth Learning is dedicated to making our educational materials usable and accessible by all learners. We continually strive to improve our offerings and ensure learner success.

Current Services

Textbooks to DSS Offices on Demand: Labyrinth Learning will provide textbook PDF files at no charge to Disability Support Services (DSS) or Disability Service Provider (DSP) offices upon request for qualified learners with disabilities.

AccessText Network: Labyrinth Learning is a participating member in the nonprofit AccessText Network (ATN) for higher-education textbooks. The ATN provides a common interface for DSS/DSP offices and providers to request, track, and receive electronic files for college textbooks on behalf of learners with print-related disabilities. The school's DSS/DSP should contact AccessText to request content in accessible format. Most requests are handled within three business days. Find out more about how it works.

Current Practices

Rich Media Assets: Since 2010, the videos produced by Labyrinth Learning have been created with closed-captioning features. All video assets used in Labyrinth Learning products are required to be close-captioned with accompanying transcripts; all images in PowerPoint presentations and interactive tutorials are captioned.

Textbooks: All Labyrinth Learning textbooks published after 2007 are available upon request from DSS offices for qualified students with disabilities at no cost and within three business days of the request. PDF files are tagged for structure. The Labyrinth Learning instructional design ensures that many images are not required to receive an “alt tag,” as the document text in the form of descriptive captions and callouts provides redundancy for the image. Textbooks published after 2015 will be completely tagged for full compliance with leading accessibility standards (i.e. Section 508 and WCAG 2.0, as they apply to electronic documents) and for functional usability with leading assistive technology tools.

eBook (media-rich digital textbooks): Labyrinth Learning partners with VitalSource to provide its digital textbooks via the VitalSource Bookshelf reader app. Labyrinth Learning and VitalSource are committed to providing rich, highly functional, long-term solutions for the needs of the accessibility market. Some of the accessibility features of the Bookshelf applications include a read aloud function, page zooming, and keyboard controls. For more information, you can download the VitalSource VPAT documents.
Labyrinth’s roadmap for future ebook releases calls for adherence to ePub3 industry standards for accessibility as outlined by the IDPF.

eLab, eLab SET, and Homework Grader: Labyrinth Learning’s online course and homework solutions are accessible for a range of disabilities, including deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited mobility, etc.
Accessibility for those with low vision and blindness is limited. We are working towards moving our content to VitalSource’s highly accessible platform. For our assessments, we plan to ensure that all related web pages are updated to conform to WCAG 2.0 standards, work with screen readers, and allow keyboard navigation. Future releases of these solutions will include additional visual options and further accessibility of problem sets. A copy of our VPAT for eLab and eLab SET are available on request.

Assessments accessibility: eLab supports screen magnification and uses high-contrast and well-structured HTML. We will strive to make all web pages used to deliver assessments WCAG 2.0 compatible in 2017. This will make more than 80% of our assessments completely accessible. We have moved away from Flash to HTML5 technology, and plan to make our simulations accessible via keyboard navigation, verbal descriptions, and feedback and use of sounds.

Non-assessment content accessibility: All eLab content will be made accessible in VitalSource ebooks, which are compatible with most assistive technologies. By 2017, we plan to ensure all image content has effective text descriptions for screen readers used by our users with blindness and low vision. All our videos have closed-captioning.

Product and Resource Websites: Effective October 2014, Labyrinth Learning policies require that all new website development meets WCAG 2.0 standards for accessibility. Most of Labyrinth Learning’s existing websites already meet many minimum requirements such as high contrast, HTML style sheets, and well-structured HTML.

Ongoing Commitment

Labyrinth Learning is diligently working to identify ways to improve accessibility in its content and to create a full spectrum of usable tools, features, and choices for users of all abilities. All new Labyrinth Learning products and services are developed with accessibility in mind. As we continue to enhance our solutions, we will update this information to keep you updated on our progress.

Further Information

For information about permissions or accessible products, please contact customer service.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about Labyrinth Learning’s accessibility support for students with disabilities, please email us: accessibility@lablearning.com.